


Putting the 'A' in Romance

by Reioka



Series: Pride Pockets [7]
Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aro-Ace, Aromantic Asexual Natasha Romanov, Aromantic Character, Asexual Character, F/M, pride fic, pride month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24775357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reioka/pseuds/Reioka
Summary: Natasha has never thought about getting married. But she realizes she kinda wants to, just for the experience.
Relationships: (But Platonic) - Relationship, Carol Danvers/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Happy Hogan/Pepper Potts, Natasha Romanov/Tony Stark
Series: Pride Pockets [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1386916
Comments: 15
Kudos: 169





	Putting the 'A' in Romance

Putting the 'A' in Romance

Natasha was the best Black Widow to have ever been trained.

At least that’s what they’d said, in the Red Room. How she could not be swayed from her missions, how she was never emotionally compromised. No mark had ever swayed her. A pretty face did not make her hesitate, and honeyed sentiments did not make her swoon. She did not have friends. She did not have partners. Her missions were her life.

More than once, she wondered if the Red Room had broken something in her.

“Maybe you’re just ace,” Clint had mused after she’d not-so-politely turned down an especially aggressive junior agent.

Natasha had stared back at him, confused, before finally replying, “Yes, I’m excellent.”

“That’s not what that means,” Clint had said, and then, “Oh God you don’t know what that means.”

Natasha knew better now. It settled her, to know that there was a name for how she felt. To know that she was not alone, not broken by her handlers. She was not a bad person because she didn’t desire sex or romantic affection. She was just herself.

“Do you think you’ll ever get married?” Pepper asked her idly one day, trying to decide whether she preferred lemon chiffon or lemon pound cake.

“I’m aro-ace,” Natasha reminded her, because she’d been an excellent actor when she’d been Natalie Rushman and sometimes Pepper forgot. Also she liked to say it out loud sometimes. It made her feel heard and seen, after spending so long thinking something was wrong with her.

Pepper lifted her head to give her a flat look. “What does that have to do with marriage?”

“Uh,” Natasha said, because she didn’t understand.

“Jim and Tony are married,” Pepper explained. “It doesn’t have to be about romantic love or anything like that. Sometimes it’s just companionship. That’s what my great-aunt did after her husband died—married her best friend’s widower so they wouldn’t be alone. Not that there’s anything wrong with being alone,” she added hurriedly. “I was just wondering! If you don’t want to get married, that’s fine.”

“Okay,” Natasha said. She’d never thought about that before. She’d always sort of wanted the experience of a wedding—finding a dress, taste-testing cakes, picking out flowers. She’d just thought it was something she’d never have, because weddings were celebrations of romance. She had friends, though. And surely none of them would… mind…

“Did you just say that Jim and Tony are married?” Natasha asked after a moment.

Pepper looked back at the pictures of cake she’d been glaring at for ten minutes previously. “Yeah, they get married every time they go to Vegas and get drunk. I think they forgot the last time that gay marriage had been legalized and they’re actually, legally married.”

Natasha stared at her. “And. And are they getting divorced at any point? Maybe soon?”

“Why,” Pepper asked, tossing the pictures of the cake aside so she could glare at bouquets instead.

Natasha couldn’t help the disbelief in her voice as she said, “Because Jim is going to marry Carol next year?”

Pepper turned to stare at her, stunned. Then she yelped and got to her feet to sprint from the room, shouting, “FUCK!”

Natasha still marveled at the fact that Pepper could sprint in heels. She had to take her heels off when she ran for fear of rolling her ankles, but Pepper could run marathons in hers.

“Whoa what the fuck was that? She’s not backing out of marrying Happy, right?” Tony asked, concerned, as he teetered into the room with his arms full of fabric samples.

“She’s gone to remind your best friend that he needs to divorce you before he marries his fiancée next year,” Natasha replied, standing up to go take some of the samples from him before they all fell to the floor. “Ostensibly because she knew if she reminded _you_ , you’d go directly to Jim and wail about him breaking up your marriage, because you know he’d pretend to be upset about it but mostly he’d just be trying not to laugh in case it made Carol mad.”

Tony blinked at her, surprised, then threw his head back and laughed. Natasha watched him fondly. He looked nice when he laughed.

“If you’re opposed to being single, _I’m_ always open for friendship-marriage,” she added, just to see what would happen. “We could go to the same places Pepper went for cake. This one place has a red velvet that melts in your mouth.”

Tony stopped laughing to stare at her, stunned. Finally, though, he said, “What if I want to marry someone I love later?”

“We divorce and I get half your assets,” Natasha replied, smiling.

Tony couldn’t help one last bark of laughter. “Ha! Bold of you to assume that Pepper lets me sign any marriage licenses without making my partner sign a prenup. You’d only get alimony for five years.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Pepper got Jim to sign a prenup while you guys were drunk?”

“Oh, Rhodey never lets me pay for anything,” Tony complained, setting the bolts of fabric down and offering Natasha his arm. “If I tried to pay him alimony, he might actually come kick my ass. So I just pay for vacations and his niece’s college and so far I’ve hidden at least fifteen hundred dollars in twenties in his apartment that he hadn’t found. Carol keeps finding them and putting them in a jar labeled ‘honeymoon.’”

“He had fifteen hundred dollars just lying around?” Natasha asked, taking his arm.

“I mean, he found some of it, obviously, but I’m creative, right? So I found better hiding spots. It’s a game and I’m winning.”

“Sounds like the only real winner is Carol,” Natasha mused. “Just so you know, I want nothing pertaining to romance at our wedding. It’s all gonna be related to friendship. And also I want on your health insurance.”

“Good thing I love the color yellow,” Tony chirped. “And fun fact! You’re already on my health insurance because no one wants to insure a fucking superhero so I literally pay for all of our medical expenses. I should put the rest of the Avengers down as my dependents.”

“Who’s the most expensive?” Natasha couldn’t help but ask. “Is it Clint?”

Tony scoffed. “Why are you even asking? Of course it’s Clint.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: Pepper bursts into Rhodey's apartment and tells him he needs to get a divorce and his knee-jerk reaction is to immediately tell her "No!" Carol laughs so hard she cries.


End file.
